How Do I Loathe Thee?
by TheGeekinPink
Summary: AU. Finn Hudson, former quarterback for the McKinley high Titans, had a fool proof plan to regain his popularity back. He would woo head cheerio Rachel Berry and get her to fall in love with him. With the help of the school's punk, Quinn Fabray, Finn couldn't imagine his plan not working out. But what happens when the girl he's trying to win over falls for the girl helping him?


Finn spits into his hand before running it through his freshly cut, short brown hair. He takes the slightly bloodied cotton ball rested near his mole and throws it on the floor of his beat up Camry. He had cut himself shaving the peach fuzz off of his sideburns this morning, wanting to look good for the first day of school. Or as he likes to call it the beginning of the best two years of his high school career. Looking like the survival dude who drinks his own pee, wasn't the best way to get anywhere with Rachel, that's for he decided to try his luck shaving, hoping he wouldn't cut his sideburns off like every other time he tried shaving . Unfortunately for him, luck was just not on his side that morning and he cut his sideburn too low,yet again, and ended up nicking himself. A little shaving accident was not going to stop Finn Hudson from starting off his junior year with a bang.

He looks at himself in the mirror one more time and gives himself one of his signature sideways smirks, satisfied with the way he looks. He steps out of the beat up car and closes the door hard, causing the car to rattle and the left side mirror to fall off. He scrambles on the ground to pick it up before looking around to see if anyone was watching. Fortunately for him, the parking lot was mostly deserted with the exception of the three people that were standing by the dumpster. They were the stoner kids who got their buzz in before class would start and would mostly like be unconscious for most of the day. He slips the mirror in the front zipper of his backpack before adjusting his letterman again and walks up to the double doors of the school.

He stops by the double doors and gives himself one last pep talk before heading inside.

_Hudson, dude, you can do this. This is your year, man. Now go in there and kick some ass!_

Satisfied, he opens one of the doors with his head held high and the best smile on his face.

As he walks into the building, Finn notices that people are literally falling out of the hallways. Everyone was divided into their little cliques by the past their prime dingy brown lockers. The fresh meat or freshmen had their maps clutched in their hands like their lives depended on it.

The Cheerios, mainly Santana, were the first people that Finn came in contact to on the way to his locker. She was the second string captain of the nationally decorated squad, and the tall blond girl who never seemed to leave Santana's side, he thinks her name is Brittany, and a couple of unknown lackeys, a short red head standing right next to Santana, while the tall brunette stood by Brittany. They were probably sophomores who were trying to get into the good graces of the feisty second in command by doing her bidding.

They all held big gulp cups in their hands, while they stared down at that chick who always wore black and had blue streaks in her hair and had a stutter, Tina or something, it doesn't really matter. Tina looked like she was about to wet herself in the hallway with the way that Santana was staring down at her menacingly with one hand on her other two minus Brittany followed suit and stood in the same position. While Brittany, who had one arm looped in with the co captain smiled down at Tina, gleefully in her own world The cheerleader then pointed down to her white shoes.

"Hey stutters, can't you watch where or are you blind too? Do you know how much these shoes cost me?" she says, looking down at Tina expectedly.

Tina, too afraid to look the other girl in the eye, which he doesn't blame her for because Santana can be really scary when she's pissed, bubblers out something incoherently. The cheerleader looks down at the girl with her eyes slit and tries to penetrate the girl with her gaze. Finn had a chill run down his spine just looking at what the other girl was doing.

"Yeah, I don't have all day to wait on you Marilyn Manson. You either tell me now or so help me, not only will I go all Lima heights on your ass, I'll give you a slushy shower so bad that you'll remember to keep your hideous away from my shoes." she says as she crosses her arms.

Finn thought that now would be a good time to make his presence known to the cheerios. He figured he would give this Tina chick a break since it was the first day of school and all. And besides, he didn't want any slushy to get on his new clothes. He walks up to Santana and taps her on the shoulder.

"Hey Santana, how's it going?" he said cheerfully, smile in place.

Santana turned around slowly and gave him a tight smile. It wasn't just any tight smile, like she was angry or anything. It was the kind of smile that his neighbor's cat gave him two summers ago when he ate the birds that stayed in the bird house that he and his mom had just put up, before walking away. In hindsight, he should have known there was something wrong then. Brittany and the other two cheerleaders turn around and face him. Brittany rushes up to him and gives him a short hug. He thought it was weird that Brittany had her thumb stuck up, but paid no attention to it at all.

"Why hello, Frankenteen, long time no see? My summer has been fantastic. How about you? Run away from any State Championship football games lately?" she says as the other girls giggled. Finn's face flushed a bright red as he remembered the game from last year.

_They were in the final quarter of the game with the score tied up with only two minutes to score. McKinley had possession of the ball and they only needed to get the ball to Puckerman, the running back and Finn's best friend down the field in order to score a touchdown. Whenever Finn got nervous, he got sort of excited. He would do his mail man chants to calm him down, but depending on the situation they would sometimes fail. Before they were about to make the play, one of the cheerleaders from Carmel had been hitting on him. And she happened to be pretty, hot and well endowed in all the right places. He swore every time she did a split, she looked straight at him. _

_Right before he was going to hike the ball, she smiled and gave him a little good luck wink. The walls around him began to close in and he started sweating a lot more than he had before. His face was so red that Coach Tanaka thought there was something wrong with him and almost pulled him for Chang. But he told coach that he would be fine. As he yelled out the hike, the friction in his pants grew more and it got worse as she pouted her lips together him and blew a kiss towards him. He felt the ball begin to slip from his hands and as Carmel and McKinley broke apart from the hike, the ball fumbled out of his hands and onto the ground. Both teams were fighting like rabid animals until finally the ball was back in possession, to Carmel. _

_As Finn rushes off the field, with his hands between his crotch, he saw the Carmel cheerleader over on their side, laughing at him with her friends. And coach was on the sidelines throwing his clipboard on the ground screaming about how they were all losers as he stuffed a whole protein bar down his throat. Finn hung his head down in shame as he headed toward the locker room to take care of his little problem as the stadium filled with McKinley fans booed him away._

His eyes squinted and his mouth dropped a little as he looked at Santana, wondering why she was bringing up one of the most humiliating moments of his life. He noticed that Tina chick had taken the opportunity to run off, not wanting to be around in case Santana was looking for a new target.

Finn didn't know what to say to the girl. He had apologized to the team and bought them beers for most of the summer, hoping that they were all cool once again. Hell, last week Puck started talking to him again, saying that he couldn't stay mad at his number wah bro. They sat all Saturday in their boxers demolishing guys online while playing Call of Duty and getting drunk, that had to have meant something. Just as he was about to ask Santana what her problem is, a short brunette with a high ponytail came into his line of sight and his mouth began to water.

The girl, like her teammates had a big gulp cup wrapped around her hand and the halls around them disappeared. His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest and he began to feel like that time he accidentally drank one of Puck's speciality drinks. It was like she was slowly gliding down the hall, strutting just for him. A sliver of her firm yet soft tanned stomach that he had spotted so many times when she would cheer at the games made a short appearance before her WHMS red and white cheer top covered it back up the best part about her was her legs. Those long, tanned legs that go on for days. It was a surprising to him, seeing that the girl barely came up to his waist. She gave him a tiny smile and what he thought was a wink. Finn hadn't even noticed that she had stopped right in front of him, as Santana and Brittany took their places on either side of her. He hadn't even noticed that she stopped right in front of him or that she had been talking to him. He was too busy imagining the things he would to to those wonderfully pouty lips of hers...

Finn opens his eyes as he realizes that her lips were not moving anymore and that she was instead looking at him, like she was bored with a hand on her hip. Santana was rolling her eyes and mumbling something in Spanish and Brittany was talking about baby ducks with the tall, brunette cheerio. He squinted his eyes and tried to keep his focus on the girl of his dreams. He wanted to play this smooth and get Rachel eating out of the palm of his hands.

"Hey Rach, you look really awesome today." he tells her. She gives him her megawatt Rachel Berry sign. That has to be a good sign, right? He decides that maybe if he compliments her on something, it would get him somewhere with Rachel. Finn leans down a little towards her hair and takes a big whiff of it. She smells like strawberries and honey, which smelled kind of nice.

"Your hair smells nice too." he tells her as he shifts on one of his feet and readjusts the strap of his backpack. Rachel takes a couple of steps back away from him as a look of confusion crosses her face.

"Uh, thanks Finn. You, uh, look rather- dashing as well." Rachel said awkwardly, taking a step away from the dopey grinning quarterback. She looks over at Santana, who scowls and nods her head over into the direction of her home room. Rachel nods back and gives the quarterback a hesitant smile.

"Well, it was nice seeing you again Finn." Rachel says abruptly. "Hope your summer was well and I'll see you at lunch, maybe?"

Finn's smile gets bigger and he nods his head like an overly excited child.

The head cheerio takes this as an opportunity to leave. As she does, she can't help but feel a little sorry for the unsuspecting quarterback for what is about to happen to him. She had tried to talk Santana and the others out of it, feeling that their punishment was a little cruel and unusual. But her second in command had insisted that this is what needed to happen and that Finn needed to be made an example of. Not that Santana needed Rachel's permission anyway, because she was going to do what she wanted to do regardless.

As Rachel walks away, Finn feels himself getting dizzy again. He watched as the head cheerleader gracefully walk away from him. He especially paid attention to the way her skirt swiveled from one side of her awesome red spandex to the next. He hadn't noticed that Santana had revealed her big cup or the other guys on the team steadfast approaching him with identical cups. It wasn't until Karofsky and Azmio stepped into his line of vision that he was broken out of his love spell.

Finn blinks a couple of times before he gives his two friends his trademark sideways smirk. He holds his hand in the air, waiting to greet his running and line backer, as he always had, only to realize he was being left to hang out to dry. He looks at the two letterman jacket clad boys, that he thought were his friends confused.

"Hey guys?" Finn says confused.

"Hudson." the football players say in unison. The quarterback looks down to see that the two boys had their hands behind their backs.

"I thought I wouldn't be seeing you guys until practice this afternoon." Finn said. "Unless coach Tanaka canceled it or something."

"Coach is no longer with the team, Hudson." Karofsky said gruffly.

"That sucks. What happened to him?" Finn said sympathetically. The quarterback had always had a fondness for the former football coach, at least when he wasn't yelling and swearing at him from the stands. He had been a good guy overall and the coach had always felt like the older brother he didn't have. He'll always remember this gem of advice that the former Titans coach taught him. When everything in life kicks you down and stuff, drink a protein shake and move on.

"Had a breakdown in the middle of practice, when his fiancee told him that he was leaving him for the pool boy." Azimo tells him.

From the corner of his vision, he sees his mohawked best friend step into his line of sight. He was wearing a pair of black slacks, a nice white blouse and black tie, not something that he was used to seeing his best friend in. Finn looks over at his ear and sees that the ear ring that coach made him remove at the beginning of the season was looped proudly into his ear.

"And she keyed the coach's car after I kicked her to the curb." Puck says with a victorious smirk on his face. "Then coach used one of the baseball team's bats and started swinging it and chasing after me when I tried to apologize. Lucky for me, the principal and his replacement walk into the stadium. It took them two hours and the Lima PD dudes tasing him before they subdued him. "

"Dude." Finn chuckles. "That is awesome. Wish I could have been there to see that."

"You so should have been."Puck laughs as he takes a step towards the clueless quarterback. "But don't worry bro I wouldn't leave coach hanging like that. I'm going to be a character witness for his sentencing this morning. In fact, I'm supposed to be there in five minutes."

Karofsky and Azimo glare over at Puck, who shrugs his shoulder and steps away from his best friend. Santana then takes the opportunity to bogart her way through the two imposing jocks and steps in between them.

"Larry and Moe, will you two stop beating around the bush and tell Curly here the good news so I can go?" Santana says impatiently. "I've got to get my mack on before practice starts. So I would appreciate it if we could hurry this along? Or so help me, I will make sure I stuff jock straps in your respective lockers for the next year?"

Santana looks over to find Brittany winking at her, with a little leer of her own.

"Tell me what?" Finn asks, taking a step away from his so called friends. "What the hell is going here?"

"While you were off playing Call of Duty in your underwear for the summer, do you know what the rest of the team's been doing?" Karofsky asks with a growl. Seeing the quarterback's mouth widen a little, the linebacker rolls his eyes at him. "We were looking through new plays, conditioning in the gym _every day_. My dad even convinced the team to start doing yoga in order to deal with the inner tensions that the team was experiencing. Yoga, Hudson! That's a big deal."

"Damn right it is!" Azimo said as he pulled on the loosing material of his yoga pants. "I've got a mat, pants and everything! And it's not even that bad, once you get past these weird looking ass pants!"

"Uh good for you guys?" Finn said, still confused as to what they were trying to say.

"During our team yoga sessions, we came to an epiphany of sorts." Karofsky said, crossing his arms defensively. "We were all still reeling from that State game loss and morale was lower than it'd ever been. We were trying to figure out how it is that a team with our overall stats-"

"Which happened to be the best on record for McKinley!" Azimo adds gruffly.

"Lost a game that we should have won with our arms tied behind our backs." Karofsky continues on. "But during our tryouts for the team, we came to an epiphany."

"Our quarterback sucks ass and we've been following him for too long and getting nowhere!" Azimo adds, moving a step closer to Finn.

Finn feels the heat come to his cheeks as he tries to look for an escape, anywhere that will take him away from here. When he looks over at the lockers across the way, he sees that punk freak Quinn Fabray with her head down, reading a book. He honestly thought that she may have been sleeping or strung out on something, like everyone thinks she is.

The quarterback reluctantly looks back over towards the angry mob and gulps.

"Come on guys, we'll be okay." Finn begs them. "I've been working out and running really hard the last couple of weeks and working on my 'll win this year, I guarantee it."

"We know, Hudson." Karofsky said with a rueful smile. "Because the new coach said our new quarterback is really good."

Finn widens his eyes in shock. They were going to give his spot to some new kid after he's had it for three years? How could they do this to him, not when he is so convinced that this'll be his best year.

"What?"

"What they are taking way too damn long to say is-" Santana interrupts, revealing the slushy cup in her hands. "that you're fired. Done. Finished. You are no longer this sad, excuse of a school's quarterback."

Santana looks over to Azimo and cringes. "BTW Azimo, you should never, under any circumstances wear _those _pants in public, ever again. Nobody needs to be subjected to your junk immediately after breakfast."

Azimo takes a step back and hides himself a little at the cheerleader's criticism. While a shocked Finn Hudson sputters for something to say.

"But don't feel bad Hudson, we wouldn't knock you off your throne without a parting gift." Santana says with a faux innocence as she steps away from the unsuspecting former jock. "Now!"

Before he could move out of the way, Finn finds himself being sprayed in several different directions. His shirt becomes chilly and he feels the stinging cold shoot down his spine. The former jock has to fight the urge to not get on his knees and kneel at the shock of the slushy. He feels like he is being stabbed slowly with several different needles all being stuck into his body at the same time as the ice chips assault his every sense. But nothing can top the betrayal and humiliation he feels at the actions of his former friends. Finn doesn't have the hindsight to shut his eyes until the last drop of slushy hits his cheek.

When it's over, the former jock does not open his eyes or move an inch from his position in the hallway. He only hears the snickering of Santana and her companion, Brittany and Azimo asking Karofsky about whether or not Santana was right about the pants. He thinks he hears a muffled apology from Puck and a promise to bring some pizza and beers to Finn's place when he was done with court.

After what feels like forever and he thinks that the crowd is gone, Finn hesitantly opens his eyes. The sight that greets him is a pink haired Quinn, who sticks a piece of paper in the book that she was reading. She pushes herself off the locker and starts to walk away. Before she does, the former blond, at least that's what her rumored hair color was, raises an eyebrow at him quizzically.

"You look kind of sticky there Hudson." Quinn deadpans. "More so than your usual." She smirks a little and then walks away.

He just lost his beloved spot on the football team and he was officially now on the shit end of the high school hierarchy. And now he was getting shit from the school freak?

As the remnants of the slushy rainbow rinse dripped onto the floor and the final homeroom bell sounded, Finn couldn't help think that his plans for the 'Year of Finn Hudson' were down the tubes with his football career at McKinley High School.

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his soggy schedule to see who his home room teacher was. Maybe he could change and puppy dog eye his way into getting excused for the day. Unfortunately, fate had not been on his side, once again, as he read off the name of said teacher.

Sylvester, S.

This was gonna be Finn Hudson's worst year ever. And to think twenty minutes ago, he had such high hopes for the year. Guess this is what his mom was talking about when she talks to him about the real world. It definitely wasn't the reality tv show with all those hot chicks and free booze.

* * *

**Hi everyone. I started this story two years ago and I never got around to working on it until now. And according to my outline, this is the only chapter where the story will be told from Finn's POV. Don't know how often I'll be able to update this, but I'll see what I can do. Hope you all enjoy this new one. As always, comments, criticism and feedback is always appreciated.**

**Until next time...**


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